In the position that Daniel was currently in, lost, powerless, and surrounded by death, seeing an aspect of existence should have been something positive. After all, while not human, the aspects of existence he had met in the past were being with whom one could reason, and ask favors to.. However, when Daniel's eyes landed on this crazy-looking man, his heart dropped, and he found himself unable to move a muscle. Even doing something as natural as breathing became extremely difficult, to a point where he even failed to notice as time came to a complete stop.
This man, averagely built and with poor self-care, took a few steps towards Daniel. From behind his long and scruffy hair, one would be able to see his widely opened eyes, which were shining through the locks and pointed at Daniel. "Now, this is interesting!" He said.
From the way this man looked at him, Daniel could not help but feel that to him, he was not as much of a person, as he was an oddity. Before he could say anything, however, the man came to a stop a couple of feet away from him, pointed his index finger at Daniel's forehead, and while tapping it a few times, he asked, "What. Are. You?"
The tapping was not powerful enough to physically hurt Daniel, but each time the man's fingertip struck his skin, it was accompanied by a tremendous wave of power that made his organs churn. At the third tap, Daniel could not hold it anymore, and with dizzy eyes, he fell on the ground and vomited the entire content of his stomach.
"Disappointing. Odd, but still frail." said the crazy-looking man before lessening the pressure emitted by his presence. Then, as Daniel tried to regain his composure, he said with a less excited tone, "Speak."
Still shook by this entity's presence, Daniel took a few deep breaths and responded by saying, "*Cough*.. I don't understand the question. Are you not an Aspect of Existence? Can you not tell?"
"An aspect of existence.." muttered the crazed man in a deep confusion. "Why did you call me that? But now that I think about it.." The more he considered Daniel's question, the more visibly excited this man appeared to become.. Almost as if he had spent an eternity wondering what kind of existence he was, and now he had finally found out. "Yes! Of course I am! Ahahaha.. An aspect of existence. Why did I never think about that? What else do you know? You are not one of my brethren, and yet I feel the power of my little brother in you. What are you exactly?"
Daniel's state of mind was beyond simply confused. From what he knew, the aspects of existence were nigh omnipotent beings, capable of ending a universe with a single thought.. and this man felt like the most powerful one Daniel had ever encountered. There was no chance that his existence could have remained separated from that of the rest of his kin.. And yet, his surprise appeared genuine to Daniel.
The questions came out of the entity's mouth with no pause, making him sound like a curious child who could not hold back when asking questions to their omniscient parents.. but in the midst of his incoherent rambling, Daniel was able to hold on to three words 'my little brother'.
"Are you Fate?" Daniel asked with uncertainty.
"Fate.. no, it doesn't feel right." responded the man as his brows furrowed in confusion, almost as if uncertain about which aspect of existence he represented. "Fate is boring. Why would anyone ever choose to believe that everything is already set, instead of navigating through infinite possibilities?"
In Daniel's eyes, the man seemed quite passionate about this topic, but the string of incoherent questions and monologues was preventing him from understanding who this being was-It was only a few minutes later, that the man came to a realization.
"No I can't be Fate. My sister is more fit to that role.. Oh! Yes, yes yes! She is Fate without a doubt." He said with excitement right before going back to its previous pensive state, and resuming his monologue. "I am quite the opposite. I could be.. What do you think I am?"
"You are.. Chaos." Said Daniel before instinctively taking a step back.
After listening to his name, the man let out a chilling laugh that resounded through the entire universe. "That I am!" He said before disappearing, and reappearing right next to the dark red orb, which he gently caressed a few times while saying, "And this is.. Or maybe I should say 'will be' Horror.. Why did you try to hurt such an interesting little bringer of chaos?"
At first Daniel did not know how to answer, but that changed as he turned to look at the horrific sight that surrounded him. "Can you blame me? I barely escaped that psychopath's influence with my life." He said while pointing his finger at the red orb, which was trembling under the Chaos's touch as if aware of its insignificance when compared to it.
"I guess that is fair. What about my other question? Why do you have the power of my brethren in your body? I can feel the faint presence of the little rascal in you.. What do you call him?" Asked Chaos while slowly walking away from the dark red orb, and once again towards Daniel.
"Conflict." responded Daniel, aware of what Chaos meant.
"YES! That fits him perfectly! Ahahah!" Said Chaos before letting out a dry laugh, and adding. "So, tell me, what are you exactly?"
At this point, it had become quite obvious to Daniel in what kind of situation he was currently in, so he looked down in dismay, as if unable to think of a next step, and said, "My name is Dan, I am a champion of Destiny.. and I don't think I belong to this time."
At the mention of time travel, Chaos's eyes lit up in an amazement. Even his kind did not have the ability to control time, and yet, despite being immortal, he had always wondered whether the future would be more interesting than the quite boring billions of years he had seen in the past. "I knew you were interesting. Tell me about this Destiny, and these champions.."
—–
For the following few minutes, Daniel explained to Chaos how, in his time, the aspects of existence had created an organized pantheon, and instead of simply witnessing what happened in the multiverse, they would actively seek to extend their influence by granting powers to what were called champions. At first, Chaos did not believe Daniel's story, as humans were not powerful enough to affect anything but a patch of land on their own respective planet, but he changed his mind as Daniel's mentioned the existence of mana.
The more Chaos heard about mana, the more excited he became, to a point where he eagerly listened to every word of Daniel's explanation.
"I get it, mana is like us.. We are the power that represents the abstract aspects of existence, while mana represents the physical ones." Said Chaos while walking back and forth.
Daniel had never seen the nature of mana that way, but now that he had, he could not help but agree with Chaos. Nothing much was known of the birth of mana, but in the time he had lived, every element contained a particular type of essence.. Even living beings. If mana as a broad concept had developed a consciousness, there would truly be no difference between it, and any other aspect of existence.
".. and you used time and space to come here, right?" Asked Chaos.
Daniel shook himself out of his pensive state. "It appears so. I am stuck here." He said in response.
"That's wonderful! You can show me about this mana while you go back." Said Chaos before sitting on the bloody floor with his legs crossed, eager to see the wondrous word that Daniel had described to him.
"I can't. There is no mana in this time.." said Daniel in response. He knew that, had there been mana in this era, he would have felt the difference in the nature of time essence, and would have immediately realized that he was not stuck somewhere unknown, but when.
Chaos appeared to be slightly disappointed, but not for long, as he stood back up on his feet, and said, "That can be fixed." He then reached for his chest with his right hand, from which he pulled out a string of his power and released it into the space in front of him.
The moment this microscopic part of Chaos' power left him, Daniel felt a surge of infinite power explode right in front of his eyes, granting color to what, ever since he had arrived, had felt like a dead greyish world. This primordial power attached itself to the stone, wind, water, lava, and living beings of this planet, morphing into what felt like raw and poorly defined forms of essence compared to the one Daniel had known.
The same was happening for the rest of the multiverse, as proven by the fact that the pulling force that was draining Daniel's power right out of his body and suddenly disappeared, allowing his essence to once again flow through his veins, and attach itself to the atoms of his body.. As Daniel observed this primordial form of mana take over the universe, something clicked in his mind. A form of mental limitation had been lifted, making him feel as if going over the limits of the godhood stage was nothing difficult.. But, alas, that was not the end of it.
While recovering his powers and gaining enlightenment should have made Daniel feel glad, the primordial essence created by Chaos was not gentle as the mana he knew, and instead, it was constantly defining itself by invading the surrounding elements, prying into them even if it meant destroying them..
A feeling of urgency took over Daniel's mind as the space began to collapse, and the world under his feet cracked. His senses could reach every bit of this planet, and he could feel the core be agitated by the primordial fire essence, the trees grow big enough for their roots to split continents apart, oceans freeze and liquefy in a matter of moments.. And the same was happening in every other planet of this universe, which were doomed just because Chaos' experiment needed calibration. Worst than any other form of essence, was the primordial space essence, which was threatening to collapse this entire universe and cause a destruction beyond anything Daniel could handle.
When everything seemed to be lost, and Daniel started to wonder whether this was the end, the figure of a pale woman with white hair, and dressed with just as white clothes, appeared in front of Chaos. Her demeanor was gentle, and contrary to Chaos', and her figure appeared eternal and never changing. The calming power emanated from her body was easily able to stop the invasive power of the primordial and chaotic mana from destroying everything.
"This was never meant to be.. Why did you do that?" she asked Chaos, who appeared to be annoyed by her presence.
"It will make things more interesting.. Fate." he said in response, while noticing as the immense power he had released a few seconds ago turned gentler under the woman's influence, and more similar to the one Daniel had described in his story.
After listening to Chaos' explanation, the very nature of the woman appeared to change, and her demeanor lost the warmness she had shown until a few moments ago, and obtained a feeling of deep coldness. A change that was welcomed by Chaos with enthusiasm.
The woman did not object to Chaos' decision to create mana. Instead, she turned to look at Daniel with confusion. "I won't allow any more changes. Send him back." She said before disappearing.
Almost excited by the woman's reaction, Chaos picked another fraction of his power from within his chest, and threw it at Daniel. He then said, "I'll only get away with this much interference. It's time for you to go back to your time." As he finished speaking, a nearly infinite, yet calm amount of power entered Daniel's body. Enough for him to replicate the surge of power that had broken the barrier of spacetime, and sent him back in time.
Daniel turned to look back at Chaos with the intention of thanking him, but like Fate, he had already disappeared.
With the planet on the verge of collapsing, Daniel teleported his companions next to him and prepared to leave.. but before doing so, the figure of the painted warrior appeared in the corner of his eye. He was kneeling on a pool of blood, surrounded by the bodies of the monstrous warriors he had killed while holding the mauled body of a woman, whom he looked at with a deep sadness. Around him were hundreds of monstrous warriors, frozen in time right before they could sink their swords, teeth, and nails into his body, and give him the death he appeared to have resigned to.
Affected by the man's expression, Daniel pried into his memories, and in a second, he saw the entire history of this planet. How a virus had turned its inhabitants into bloodthirsty monsters.. Beings brutal enough to cause the birth of Horror himself. The painted warrior was the last survivor of a nearly extinct species of humans, who had refused to die by hanging on to the hope that, one day, he would find his daughter Zuwena, which had been taken away from him two year back.
Unfortunately, while he had finally found her, he was too late.
In the mind of this warrior Daniel could feel the willingness to die, but he could not bring himself to let him to his fate.. so he teleported him next to his companions, and used all of the power granted by Chaos to once again breach the barrier of spacetime, and reach, in the infinite flow of time, a point where he could feel the presence of friends.
This action resulted in the opening of a rift, which forcibly pulled all seven of them in, and closed right after.
Once Daniel disappeared, time resumed its normal course, allowing the planet, and the rest of the multiverse, to get used to this newly acquired power.
—–
When nothing of the planet was left but a bunch of immense rocks that floated aimlessly through space, the figure of Fate and Chaos quietly reappeared.
"It took awhile, but something that goes beyond your stale existence has finally happened. How does it feel, sister?" Asked Chaos to the pensive-looking Fate.
"I don't like it." Said Fate in response.
As she finished speaking, Fate lifted her right hand up to the side of her head and used her slender and pale fingers to pinch her right temple, from which she pulled out what looked like a normal seed. She observed this seed for a few moments before letting go of it, allowing it to float in space, and land onto one of the floating rocks.
Then, as she observed the seed bury itself underground, she asked, "How would that person define this one?"
Chaos smiled once again, and answered, "That is Destiny."
